The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human PDF Author: V. S. Ramachandran
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393340627
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
Drawing on strange and thought-provoking case studies, an eminent neurologist offers unprecedented insight into the evolution of the uniquely human brain.

The Tell-Tale Brain

The Tell-Tale Brain PDF Author: V. S. Ramachandran
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0099537591
Category : Affective neuroscience
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Get Book Here

Book Description
This fascinating book reveals what we learn about human nature when the brain goes wrong. It looks at why the human brain is so unique and examines how it became so complex.

Phantoms in the Brain

Phantoms in the Brain PDF Author: V. S. Ramachandran
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0688172172
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments -- using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases: A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial. A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience? A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time. Dr. Ramachandran's inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier -- the human mind -- yielding new and provocative insights into the "big questions" about consciousness and the self.

The Neuroscience of You

The Neuroscience of You PDF Author: Chantel Prat
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1524746614
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Get Book Here

Book Description
From University of Washington professor Chantel Prat comes The Neuroscience of You, a rollicking adventure into the human brain that reveals the surprising truth about neuroscience, shifting our focus from what’s average to an understanding of how every brain is different, exactly why our quirks are important, and what this means for each of us. With style and wit, Chantel Prat takes us on a tour of the meaningful ways that our brains are dissimilar from one another. Using real-world examples, along with take-them-yourself tests and quizzes, she shows you how to identify the strengths and weakness of your own brain, while learning what might be going on in the brains of those who are unlike you. With sections like “Focus,” “Navigate,” and “Connect,” The Neuroscience of You helps us see how brains that are engineered differently ultimately take diverse paths when it comes time to prioritize information, use what they’ve learned from experience, relate to other people, and so much more. While other scientists focus on how “the” brain works “on average,” Prat argues that our obsession with commonalities has slowed our progress toward understanding the very things that make each of us unique and interesting. Her field-leading research, employing cutting-edge technology, reveals the truth: Complicated as it may be, no two brains are alike. And individual differences in brain functioning are as pervasive as they are fundamental to defining what “normal” looks like. Adages such as, “I’m not wired that way” intuitively point to the fact that the brains we’re piloting, educating, and parenting are wonderfully distinct, explaining a whole host of phenomena, from how easily a person might learn a second language in adulthood to whether someone feels curious or threatened when faced with new information. This book invites the reader to understand themselves and others by zooming in so close that we all look gray and squishy.

A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness

A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness PDF Author: V. S. Ramachandran
Publisher: Dutton Books
ISBN:
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
"How can people come to believe that their poodle is an impostor? Or see colors in numbers? Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, said of V. S. Ramachandran's first book, "The patients he describes are fascinating, and his experiments on them are both simple and ingenious." With his unique energy and style Ramachandran now shares his insights into the mind from such everyday human experiences as pain, sight, and the appreciation of beauty to the ultimate philosophical conundrums of consciousness."--BOOK JACKET.

The Ravenous Brain

The Ravenous Brain PDF Author: Daniel Bor
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465032966
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
Consciousness is our gateway to experience: it enables us to recognize Van Gogh's starry skies, be enraptured by Beethoven's Fifth, and stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain. Yet consciousness is subjective, personal, and famously difficult to examine: philosophers have for centuries declared this mental entity so mysterious as to be impenetrable to science.In The Ravenous Brain, neuroscientist Daniel Bor departs sharply from this historical view, and builds on the latest research to propose a new model for how consciousness works. Bor argues that this brain-based faculty evolved as an accelerated knowledge gathering tool. Consciousness is effectively an idea factory -- that choice mental space dedicated to innovation, a key component of which is the discovery of deep structures within the contents of our awareness.This model explains our brains"; ravenous appetite for information -- and in particular, its constant search for patterns. Why, for instance, after all our physical needs have been met, do we recreationally solve crossword or Sudoku puzzles? Such behavior may appear biologically wasteful, but, according to Bor, this search for structure can yield immense evolutionary benefits -- it led our ancestors to discover fire and farming, pushed modern society to forge ahead in science and technology, and guides each one of us to understand and control the world around us. But the sheer innovative power of human consciousness carries with it the heavy cost of mental fragility.Bor discusses the medical implications of his theory of consciousness, and what it means for the origins and treatment of psychiatric ailments, including attention-deficit disorder, schizophrenia, manic depression, and autism. All mental illnesses, he argues, can be reformulated as disorders of consciousness -- a perspective that opens up new avenues of treatment for alleviating mental suffering.A controversial view of consciousness, The Ravenous Brain links cognition to creativity in an ingenious solution to one of science's biggest mysteries.

Brainwashed

Brainwashed PDF Author: Sally Satel
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books
ISBN: 0465018777
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
Demonstrates how the explanatory power of brain scans in particular and neuroscience more generally has been overestimated, arguing that the overzealous application of brain science has undermined notions of free will and responsibility.

The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human PDF Author: V. S. Ramachandran
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393340627
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
Drawing on strange and thought-provoking case studies, an eminent neurologist offers unprecedented insight into the evolution of the uniquely human brain.

Free Will and Will to Power

Free Will and Will to Power PDF Author: Mike Hockney
Publisher: Magus Books
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Get Book Here

Book Description
Are you free, or are you a machine that suffers from a delusion that it's free? Free will is perhaps the most important subject of all because if we are authentically free, scientific materialism is ipso facto false, and the world is in urgent need of a revolutionary paradigm shift. This book shows that free will has a most unexpected advocate – mathematics. Only in a mathematical universe can we be free. Only in a mathematical universe can we have a soul. And in a mathematical universe, free will is much better understood as will to power, and to have an intimate connection with cosmic symmetry and "God". It's all in the math!

The History of Neuroscience

The History of Neuroscience PDF Author: Anne Rooney
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1508177058
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
Neuroscience is the science of the brain and the nervous system. This volume explores the early history of the field, including landmark case studies like that of the railroad worker Phineas Gage's impalement by an iron rod, an accident he survived, though not without personality changes. Also examined are early studies of madness and genius, physical treatments for psychiatric disorders, and the categorization of neurological differences and disorders, such as autism. The emergence of cognitive science in the modern era is also covered, including theories of intelligence, learning, language development, machine intelligence, and consciousness. Loaded with color and archival images and graphics, this volume illuminates one of our greatest and most enduring mysteries, the human mind.

Tales of neuroscience

Tales of neuroscience PDF Author: Pranjal Garg
Publisher: The Mind Gala
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Get Book Here

Book Description
Tales of Neuroscience is a compendium of 41 articles authored by students and mentors who participated in a mentorship program. The book covers a diverse range of topics within the field of neuroscience, including basic neuroscience, diseases, mental health, neuro-technology, and the impact of neuroscience on daily life. The book is unique in that it also includes translations of select articles in Hindi, Bengali, and Malayalam, thereby broadening the accessibility of the content to a wider audience. The contributors offer insightful perspectives and deep insights into the intricacies of the brain, making this book an informative and engaging read for anyone interested in the field of neuroscience.